Operationally, the new BJ's Wholesale Club on Attucks Lane is ready to open. Regulatory-wise, there's still some work to be done.

The Cape Cod Commission's regulatory committee met Monday morning to discuss a revised decision that would allow the new store to open before meeting all of the requirements agreed to in the commission's April 2003 approval of the development of regional impact. The committee continued ts hearing until Feb. 14.

BJ's has hired some 125 employees and has been stocking its shelves. Attorney Patrick Butler of Hyannis, who represents the Tarkinow Group that is developing the site for BJ's, said that while some inventory is coming in, the store is ready to open almost immediately.

Commission planner Martha Hevenor said that the commission's staff and regulatory committee "has sympathy for the predicament that BJ's and Tarkinow Group are in," and expressed a willingness to work with the town and applicant to address the remaining issues. "Once these issues are addressed, the store would be able to open," Hevenor said.

The Big Ticket Item

The "big ticket item" in all of the requests is changing the schedule for improving the intersection of Independence Drive and Route 132. That intersection, which is also a back way into the Cape Cod Mall through Enterprise Road, was identified by the town as one that needed to be addressed through the BJ's mitigation process.

The commission's April 2003 decision approving the project includes fully engineered plans for the intersection at Route 132 and Independence Drive. Some changes in that concept were the subject of at least one meeting among town officials and nearby business and property owners in November. In the end, there was not enough time to get the work done before the onset of winter and the closing of asphalt plants.

The current request from Tarkinow is for the work to be done in the spring, but not before the store opens. One of the options being discussed is for Tarkinow to place funds in escrow as a guarantee that the work would be done. In discussion last week, commission staff and the developer were to come up with an agreeable amount to be escrowed.

DPW Director Mark Ells said that as a practical matter, there is no way for the road work to be done until spring.

Plans, Requests Changing

Hevenor said that part of the difficulty in reaching a decision was the timing of number of new requests from the developer, which were presented Friday in advance of the Monday morning meeting. She said that staff did not have enough time to digest the information, much of which had changed from a meeting earlier last week, before presenting it to the regulatory committee. Amy Russ, a media relations officer in BJ's corporate offices in Natick, said that stocking of the shelves began after the commission staff allowed the town to issue a temporary certificate of occupancy on Jan. 18.

Russ said that the store is fully stocked with the exception of perishable goods and is fully staffed. She said that further delays in opening could lead to layoffs of the 125 hourly employees now on staff.

Hevenor, who did not attend the Jan. 18 meeting, said that concerns were expressed by other staff members about issuing the temporary permit while outstanding issues remained, as they held the potential to delay the opening. She said that staff wanted it to be clear that BJ's would not use that temporary permit to exert any pressure on the remaining deliberations. Hevenor said that there was agreement on that point. In an Wednesday afternoon interview Russ said that the opening date had been moved around in the past couple of weeks, but was expected "certainly by now."

BJ's started its local hiring in November, and its club membership campaign even earlier. Russ said that there was already "strong membership" on the Cape, and that local residents had been patronizing other stores, mostly North Dartmouth and the newly-opened Plymouth location. Other Items

Butler has been tying off loose ends to ease the opening schedule. Two weeks ago he appeared before the town council to present a land gift in Independence Park as part of the traffic mitigation portion of the agreement. The 4.1-acre parcel was donated to the town to cover future traffic avoidance as well as provide needed access for what could become Exit 6 1/2.

Hevenor said that the regulatory committee also sought some clarification on that donation.

Also to be resolved is just what becomes of Cash's Autobody on Barnstable Road. The commission's April 2003 decision provided that the developer would deed that property to the town. That provision was first proposed by the Tarkinow Group as an alternative way to address hazardous waste storage Regarding Cash's Autobody, Hevenor said an update provided by the applicant at the Jan. 18 meeting indicated that $300,000 would be provided to effect the sale of that property. In a letter dated last Friday, there was a request from the applicant to modify the decision, eliminating the purchase of Cash's, while providing $150,000 to address myriad hazardous materials mitigation and education issues in town.

Hevenor said that there's need for clarification on just what's planned, as an outright purchase does not seem to be the direction being followed. By way of process, the commission's regulatory committee can approve minor changes to DRI decisions without having to bring them to the full commission. Whether the requests now before the committee will be deemed minor remains to be seen. Major changes would require an advertised hearing before the full commission.

The regulatory committee is scheduled to take up the matter on Feb. 14, but Butler said there is a request to come back earlier if there is agreement on the outstanding issues. The regulatory committee chairman has the ability to call a special meeting with 48 hours notice.